Corruption: Feeling the Heat

It was as if someone had put a match to a leaking gas pipe. With the disclosure of B.C.C.I.'s "black network" around the world came an explosion of new charges and political recriminations that seem likely to go on for months. The question of the hour: Why had so many countries done so little for so long to rein in the Bank of Credit & Commerce International when, as is now evident, so many were aware of the bank's nefarious operations?

In Washington, the U.S. Justice Department adamantly disputed evidence that it had failed to follow through on reports from undercover...